Angel had his day in court today. His attorney and the prosecutors
had worked out an agreement, which the judge accepted. Here are the
results.

The judge overseeing the case ordered the police to give Angel's guns
back, but he must register the handguns in compliance with Michigan
law (euphemistically called a "safety inspection", but it is clearly
registration, a law adopted in the 20s to keep guns out of the hands
of Blacks). The only charges on the table were four misdemeanor
counts of failure to present a handgun for a safety inspection. The
theoried charge discussed in the media and on the Net about
"menacing" and threats was not advanced by prosecutors, because there
was no substance to the theoried charge. Police and prosecutors
figured this out after looking at the facts and evidence.

Angel will be on non-reporting probation on the failure to register
charges for a year and a half. Angel will have on his record forever
four misdemeanor violations of failure to present his handguns for
"safety inspection". Angel must perform three days of community
service, which will hold him in Michigan for almost a month (because
they are court-scheduled days).

I've been saying for too long now that the attorneys have insisted on
silence from anyone having inside information about this situation,
because release of such information could very well have torpedoed
the deal Angel's attorney had worked out with the prosecutors.
Frankly, the prosecutors were not anxious to go to trial on this
case, and Angel is too clearly a clean and good guy to be able to
spin him as some dangerous nut case.

Now is probably time for me to confess a bit of an ulterior motive in
all of this. Angel plans to move to Montana where can live under
what legal scholar Dave Kopel calls the freest gun laws in the World
(see Dave's Foreword to my book, Gun Laws of Montana), where he can
go Prairie Dog hunting with my son Ty and myself, and where he will
undertake the needful task of recruiting scads of members for MSSA.
According to the plan, recruiting membership for MSSA will be Angel's
vocation for the indefinite future. I suspect you may be hearing a
pitch from Angel (an MSSA Member since 2003) to join MSSA (hey, a lot
of our members don't live in Montana).

So, stay tuned for more info about how this all happened to Angel.
In the meantime, if you haven't donated to Angel's legal defense, but
wish to do so, there is information about this at:

Y'all know, don't you, that L. Neil Smith is auctioning off the
hand-corrected manuscript to his latest book Ceres? Y'all
know, don't you, that Neil mostly does his writing on the computer
these days, and rarely produces a printed version? In other words,
this chance may not come again! So read all about it in that little
box up top of the page and then check your bank account!

Speaking of money, your donations will help keep TLE on the
air (so to speak). And so would using our advertiser and affiliate
links to buy yourself the stuff you want and need. You'll notice
that The Free State Project didn't renew their Ad Brite advertisement
this month ... which tells me they didn't generate any meaningful
traffic from advertising on TLE. Bummer.

Banned Near Boston
More chicanery from the underworld of family law.by Stephen Baskerville, PhD
Nearly ninety years ago, when divorce liberalization was being advocated
by feminists, G.K. Chesterton warned in The Superstition of Divorce
that undermining the family would imperil civic freedom.
His warning was vindicated recently when Massachusetts family court judge Mary
Manzi outlawed a book that criticizes government officials. Manzi
herself is sharply criticized in the book but obviously did not
recuse herself from the proceeding.
 FULL STORY

Home of the Economically Ignorant?by Chris Claypoole
In "Home of the Brave?" [last issue], John Steinsvold opined:
"Economists concede that economics is an inexact science. What does that mean?
Perhaps it means their economic forecast is better than yours or mine."
Possibly. But it certainly means, given what follows, that anyone with
economics training has a better knowledge of what economics can and cannot
do than he does. Not that what he writes has much at all to do with economics.
It has far more to do with politics, especially the politics of envy, and of
wishful thinking about economic prescriptions that have failed many times in
the past.
 FULL STORY

Political Junk Science and its Geeksby Darian Worden
I am majoring in history and political science, and
I'm very glad to be finished with the political science requirement.
Every class I took for that subject I ended up disliking by the end of
the semester. By the time that I realized they would all suck, I was
almost done with my polisci requirement so I just finished it.
 FULL STORY

If You Love Your Country, You Should Question 9/11by Jonathan David Morris
Charlie Sheen likes prostitutes.
On March 20th, the aforementioned actor appeared on
the Alex Jones radio show to discuss his thoughts on
9/11. He said he didn't believe that a plane hit the
Pentagon, and added the Twin Towers looked like they
were imploded.
And the best response anyone could come up with was to
say he was nuts and likes prostitutes.
 FULL STORY

Q & A: The New $10 Billby Pete Stephenson
We have received many inquiries about the new ten
dollar bill. Here are some of the frequently
asked questions. Please refer to this FAQ before
sending us your questions.
 FULL STORY

Without Exceptionby Lady Liberty
Last week, I was searching through news headlines when
I found another story about another state working for passage of a "stand
your ground" law (that's a law that says you aren't obligated to retreat
before using deadly force if you believe that deadly force is warranted).
While I thought the law was a good thing, when I passed along the news to
others online I also pointed out (just a little tongue in cheek) that all
of us already had one of those, no matter where we lived, and that it's
called "The Second Amendment."
 FULL STORY

Home of the Slave?by Michael Bradshaw
Re the article "Home of the Brave?" by John Steinsvold
in issue #361: If Master Steinsvold's article is supposed to be an April
Fool day joke; it is a day late. If so, please accept my apology and read
no further. If not, I wish to address and dismiss it.
 FULL STORY

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